Wiring up St Helena: the campaign to connect a remote Atlantic island

Dfid appears to be considering the matter. A spokesperson told
Wired.co.uk: "Her Majesty's Government recognises that
a fibre-optic cable could bring faster, more reliable global
broadband connectivity to St. Helena
which could have a very significant
impact on economic development in St Helena. The remoteness of
the island means that such
opportunities are unlikely to arise very often."

However, the spokesperson
also cautioned that the entire cable hasn't yet been signed
off. "We'd have to see if the wider
project gets the go ahead, before considering financing the St
Helena part," he added. "A full economic assessment would
clearly be needed to consider the extent of the economic and social
benefits that such a link could bring to St. Helena.We would also consider the cost and value for money it
would deliver UK
taxpayers."

One big problem that a broadband link could effectively solve is
that of representation. The islands have little political power
within the British political system, but recent proposals have put
forth the idea of allowing Britain's scattered island territories
to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Andrew Rosindell MP, a
member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told the Independent: "Our parliament ultimately
governs 21 territories around the world, but those territories have
no voice in this parliament, they elect no representatives and have
no representation."

He added: "We have a democratic hole with hundreds
of thousands of people for whom we make laws, whom we ultimately
govern and on whose behalf we can declare war, make foreign policy
and sign international treaties." Von der Ropp makes the point that
it's tricky for people to actively participate in a democracy
that's happening 7,500km away, but that a fast, reliable internet link could
help address that.

Then there are social factors. E-learning has been
proven as effective by the work of Sugatra Mitra
and Sebastian Thrun, and while the local schools do make limited use of the existing internet
infrastructure on the island, much of the modern web is locked off
by the strict bandwidth and download caps. While St Helena's
literacy level is high, there are no facilities for students beyond
the age of 18, so they're are forced to go abroad to continue their
education. Enabling distance learning, Von der Ropp argues, could
yield significant positive economic and social benefits.

Telemedicine is another area where improved web
connectivity could deliver tangible benefits to the remote island.
With the ability to send medical imagery and data over the web to
Britain, fewer patients would need to wait for the long boat trip
to Capetown to be treated in the hospitals there.

Finally, there's the economic boost that modern
broadband can deliver. A World Bank study (PDF) in 2010 said: "in low- and middle-income
countries every 10 percentage point increase in broadband
penetration accelerates economic growth by 1.38 percentage points,"
describing this as "more than for other telecommunications
services". If that holds true in St Helena, then Von der Ropp's
proposal of allowing 155Mb/s (of the cable's
12.8Tb/s capacity) for the island should
yield a 21 percent increase in the island's economic growth.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the proposal,
however, is that this is totally uncharted territory. "This would
be an unprecedented event, not only for the islanders but for the
telecoms industry," says Von der Ropp. "None of the major submarine
cables have ever been landed on such a small island to serve such a
tiny community. This would probably be the first time a landing
point has been selected solely for social reasons. This is why we
are amazed that eFive is ready to land the cable at St Helena if
somebody paid for it. We originally expected this to be the highest
hurdle, but now it looks like funding from the UK government is the
problem."

If you want to find out more about
the campaign, you can visit connectsthelena.org,
which includes plenty of details on the technical aspects of the
project, and how to help
out.

"Our campaign is not about making
YouTube videos load faster, but about improving people's quality of
life and giving them economic prospects on their island," says Von
der Ropp. "There is probably no other place in the world that could
profit so much from the merits of broadband telecommunications than
St Helena."

Comments

Really interesting read, St Helena is my home I would love to return to the Island but without the right internet connection I would never be able to earn a month's wages on the present setup. Most people on St Helena have never enjoyed the full potential or even enjoyed the end user experience of the internet..Video streaming podcast shopping online is rarely heard off The smallest internet package cost a third of a week's wages Island politics has also allowed the sole communications rights to cable and wireless the local ISP.

Jonathan Clingham

Feb 22nd 2012

This should be done....

It would improve education, strengthen family ties, and imporve the economy.

"In contrast, Saints' only transport to the outside world is a Royal Mail ship passing every two to three weeks and sailing five days to Cape Town at the price of month's salary."

The average salary there is £70 a week. The lowest fare to Cape Town is £409 ONE WAY! That is almost 3 Month's salary for a roundtrip ticket!